People in northern and eastern Maine were digging out Tuesday from a storm that pounded parts of the state for 48 hours and dumped more than 3 feet of snow in the St. John Valley.

By the time the storm ended, Fort Kent and St. Francis residents were coping with 39 inches of snow, one of the biggest snowfalls ever in the Valley. Clayton Lake reported 38 inches, Madawaska 37 inches and Caribou 31.7.

The wintry blast served to underscore northern Aroostook County’s reputation for, well, winter. “There’s a saying around here: You’ve got nine months of winter and three months of bad sledding,” said meteorologist Duane Wolfe in Caribou.

All of that snow was good news for the Maine Winter Sports Center in Fort Kent, which will host four days of biathlon trials starting Thursday.

Biathlon is a sport that combines skiing with target shooting, and 20 men and 22 women will be vying in the TD Banknorth Festival for 10 spots on the team that will represent the U.S. at Turin, Italy.

Just a week ago, organizers had arranged a “shoveling party” for Dec. 26-27 “because conditions were pretty thin and we needed to shovel the snow in,” said Max Cobb, a U.S. Biathlon Association official.

On Tuesday, officials were busy “shoveling out the venue” at the 10th Mountain Ski Center in Fort Kent.

“The joke is: we prayed for it, and we got it,” said Nancy Thibodeau, event director. “It’s beautiful snow and it’s packing really well. Athletes like nice, packed, hard snow. That’s what this is giving us. It’s going to make the event even better.”

The National Weather Service reported total snowfall measurements across The County at 9 inches to 39 inches, depending on how far north the community is located.

The storm dumped 30 inches on Washburn; Mapleton was swamped in 27 inches; Allagash came in at 26.5 inches; Van Buren received 24 inches; Mars Hill topped out at 18 inches; and Houlton received the lowest reported snowfall: 9.5 inches.

Area police departments said the snow and the poor road conditions it caused resulted in surprisingly few traffic problems.

The snow began falling early on Christmas Day, and the storm’s fury grew on Monday, when it was accompanied by winds of 20 to 30 mph. The blowing snow created massive drifts that quickly covered roads that already had been plowed.

A National Weather Service meteorologist said Tuesday that the storm – which dropped 31.7 inches of snow in Caribou for 48 hours between Christmas morning and Dec. 27 – broke the 29.5-inch record set in February 2003.

For most people in the region, all those numbers translated into one thing: literally tons of snow that had to be shoveled, plowed or otherwise removed from roads and driveways.

In Presque Isle, Public Works Director Gerry James estimated that his plow crews would remove 18,000 to 20,000 tons of snow by the time they wrapped up work Tuesday night. He said he had all crews and 13 plows out all day Monday and that they were back out again early Tuesday.

“They only had about three hours off last night,” James said. “But it’s cleaning up good today.”

In neighborhood after neighborhood, people were using everything from shovels to John Deere plows to clear the snow from their driveways so they could extract their vehicles.

Bevie McLean of Presque Isle said she had been up since early Tuesday, trying to remove snow from around her car. She finally gave up on making it to work, but said she has a secret weapon that may help in case the weather keeps up.

“Guess what I got for Christmas?” she asked with a grin. “A pair of snowshoes.”